Aligning fixture for mold opening and closing mechanism

Abstract

A mold opening and closing mechanism includes an aligning mechanism which has a horizontal mounting plate including a number of vertical openings for the number of molds, that is supported by a pair of spaced vertical uprights secured to the section frame top surface. A plurality of aligning cylinders are located in the vertical openings in the horizontal mounting plate and move parallel with the mold holder motion. Each cylinder includes surfaces configured to mate with the clamping surfaces of the mold holders. The axis of one of the aligning cylinders is held but not clamped at the theoretical centerline so it can move to the actual centerline when the mold holders are located at the advanced clamped closed position. A position transducer is mounted parallel with the mold holder motion to sense movement of the axis of one of the aligning cylinders and a computer receiving positional data from the transducer compares the theoretical centerline with the actual centerline determined from the data and defines a displacement offset for the displacement program to align the mold holders to the theoretical centerline.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A mold opening and closing mechanism for a section of an I.S. glass forming machine, the section having a frame with a top surface, comprising first and second mold holders each having a number of clamping surfaces corresponding to the number of molds for bottles to be made in the section,   first means for displacing said first mold holder from a retracted open position to an advanced clamped closed position,   second means for displacing said second mold holder from a retracted open position to an advanced clamped closed position, and   an alignment mechanism including a mounting plate,   means for horizontally supporting said mounting plate over said first and second mold holders when said mold holders are located at said advanced clamped closed position,   said mounting plate including a number of vertical openings corresponding to the number of molds in the section,   a corresponding number of aligning cylinders located in said horizontal mounting plate vertical openings and keyed with said horizontal mounting plate to move parallel with the mold holder motion, said aligning cylinders each including surfaces configured to mate with the corresponding clamping surfaces of the mold holders when said mold holders are displaced to said advanced clamped closed position,   means to locate the axis of one of the said aligning cylinders at the theoretical centerline so that said aligning cylinder can move from the theoretical center line to the actual center line when the mold holders are located at the advanced clamped closed position,   a position transducer mounted parallel with mold holder motion to sense movement of the axis of said one of the aligning cylinders and   computer means for operating a feed program to displace said first mold holder a selected first distance from the retracted position to the advanced closed clamped position and to displace said second mold holder a selected second distance from the retracted position to the advanced closed clamped position,   for receiving positional data from said position transducer, and   for defining displacement offsets for said selected first and second distances whereby said first and second mold holders will be aligned to the theoretical centerline when advanced to the advanced closed clamped position.       
     
     
       2. A mold opening and closing mechanism for a section of an I.S. glass forming machine according to claim 1, wherein each of said aligning cylinders includes a top portion and the dimension of each of said top portions and the dimension of said mounting plate in the direction of mold holder motion are the same. 
     
     
       3. A mold opening and closing mechanism for a section of an I.S. glass forming machine according to claim 2, wherein each top portion includes threaded hole means and wherein said position transducer includes a first mounting block including threaded fastener means for insertion into said threaded hole means and wherein said mounting plate includes threaded hole means and said position transducer includes a second mounting block including threaded fastener means for insertion into said mounting plate threaded hole means.